1. ANNOTATED
PLOT
ALICE SOPHIE TURRELL

2. WHAT I AM
INCLUDING
IN MY
TRAILER

3. It is late one night and some
girls have been lost in the
country for a few hours, and
they are getting tired and it is
getting dark. They come across
an old abandoned farm building
that they decide would be the
best place to sleep for the night
due to the shelter it gives from
the rain. One girl is unsure
whether it is safe and does not
want to go through with it, but
seeing as they others want to
and decided there is not better
option, she has no choice but to
go with them. She keeps saying
she feels someone watching
them and wants to go and
look, but everyone is telling her
she is a wimp, and then feels
pressured into just going along
with the plan no questions
asked.
I will be including this scene near
the beginning of my trailer as it is
important for the audience to be
given some background
information rather than just the
action as it will help them get
more of a sense of what is
happening.
Although I am including this, it will
not be dominating the trailer as I
do not want to give all of the story
away, just enough for people to
get a grasp on the genera plot.
Another reason I would not add
too much of the beginning section
of the film is because I am
making a teaser trailer so the
content needs to mainly be fast
action clips to get the audience
hooked in a short time period.

4. After finding the best place to sleep, they get comfortable and
share a bottle of vodka one of the girls had brought with
them. The girl who felt uncomfortable starts to fall asleep
quickly due to the alcohol and tiredness. The others stay
awake a bit longer but soon are all asleep.
I think this is an important scene that cannot be
missed. This is because it shows that the girls
will be intoxicated which in itself will lead to a
series of events, such as sleeping faster, acting
a bit drunk and not being in much control of their
actions making them easier targets and not fully
understand what is going on or the severity of
the situation.

5. While they are sleeping, a
masked male figure comes in
quietly and watched them for a
while holding a knife and cloth.
While he starts to make his way
towards one of the
girls, another starts to stir in
their sleep and get up. In panic
of getting seen, he hides
behind a wall. He notices that
she has gone outside to go to
the toilet, he goes a different
way to her and sneaks up
behind her, gagging her and
carrying her away to an
outbuilding.
This is another important part
of the plot that needs to be
seen as it introduces the
audience to the antagonist.
While I want to show the
antagonist to create a sense of
fear and anticipation in the
audience, I do not want to give
to much away straight away so
will show this with a over the
shoulder shot. This will not only
keep a sense of anonymity, but
show the girls from his point of
view.
This is a good scene to show really
fast in the trailer, without seeing the
girl get caught, just the lead up to
show how vulnerable and unaware
she is. However, if I also showed the
girl getting caught it would show
more panic and emotion.

6. As they enter the outbuilding, you
can see it is already set up with
torture instruments, and a dead
body is tied to a chair in the
corner, next to a pile of body bags.
He the throws the girl onto a table
and restrains her. He then starts to
torture her. Deciding to take a
break and choose another girl, he
goes back to room, and drags one
of the girls back to the room. She
wakes up and notices her friend in
pain and tries to help with her
hands and feet tied and
gagged, which angers him and
decided to just kill the first
girl, bagging her up and pushing
her into a pond. While he is on his
way back, the other girl who did
not want to stay wakes up to find
herself alone. Scared, she walks
around trying to find her
friends. She notices the bag half
out of the water, and goes to look.
She opens it to see her dead friend
and lets out a scream.
It is important to show the torture
area, even not in this way, to set
the scene and show where
everything is taking place. This
will not only help the audience to
identify the genre as horror but to
create fear and make them want
to see the film more.
This is good to show as it will
give away some action and
conform to typical existing
horror films which include lots of
short action clips to get the
audience hooked.
This is important as it is the point
that the girl knows something bad
is happening and is therefore a
turning point that drives the plot
on. The scream is also important
as it lets the antagonist know that
she is there, which starts a new
chain of events.

7. As the masked murderer is tidying up, he hears the scream
and grabs his chainsaw. The girl hears this and runs to the
path. He sees her, drops the chainsaw and runs, grabbing her
which makes her fall down, and the throws her over his
shoulder thrashing around. He then ties her to a chair while
he continues to torture them both.
This should be shown as it gives
a bit more away about the
antagonist, showing him to be on
guard and shows his choice of
weapon which is typical to
existing horror films (Friday the
13th etc.).
This as in previous parts of the plot
should be included as it shows strong
examples of action and genre. This will
also make the audience wonder what is
going to happen, making them want to
watch the film.

8. It comes to morning and the
second girl is dead and he is
sleeping. The third girl managed
to get out of the hand restraints
and free herself. Grabbing the
first thing she could, she attacks
the murderer, but not strong
enough to kill, just enough to
walk him, throw him off guard
and give her time to run. She
takes the weapon with
her, running back down the path.
She keeps on running and
screaming but no one is around.
She trips over, hurting her leg
and slowing down. This allows
the murderer to catch up with
her, she fights him off and keeps
running. She soon finds
help, but they think she is insane
when they could not find any
murderer, weapons in the
abandoned house, or dead
bodies.
This I think would look good
included towards the end of
the trailer as it shows that the
film mainly centres around
her and shows her to be the
final girl. Although I would not
show all of this, just her with
the weapon so you don’t find
out what happens to the
antagonist in the trailer.
I have decided t leave out the
entire main section almost as
the whole point of the trailer is
to make people want to watch
the film and find out what
happens in the end, not show
people the ending which
would not create a cliffhanger.

9. PROAIRETIC CODE –
ROLAND BARTHES
Everything highlighted in orange is an proairetic code, that changes the
course of the film or means a certain action has to follow.
Some examples are;
“bagging her up and pushing her into a pond”
If this did not happen, then the last girl would not have seen it and
screamed, leading to the antagonist going after her. If she woke up and
looked around and the bag was not there then she could have either
escaped or walked into the torture area perhaps.
“decide would be the best place to sleep for the night”
This is a crucial move in the plot, as if they kept on walking they would
not have been in the building, therefore not getting killed. However, the
plot could have turned out similarly also, with the antagonist following
them if he noticed them walking and killing the that way.

10. IN RELATION TO 5 STAGE
NARRATIVE THEORY –
EXPANSION OF TVZETAN
TODAROV’S THEORY
EXPOSITION
The three girls are seen walking around in the country lost after trying to find their way back and it is dark.
DEVELOPMENT
They find an abandoned house and decided to sleep in as it is getting dark. One girl feels unsure and feels like
she is being watched.
COMPLICATION
The girl that felt unsure wakes up to find one of her friends dead, gets captured and finds another being
tortured.
CLIMAX
The girl tries to save her friend, get tortured herself, and fights for her survival.
RESOLUTION
The girl gets away after being chased by the murderer, finds help but is seen as mentally unstable after no
evidence at all has been found of any of the events that happened that night.

11. SYD FIELD’S 3 ACTS
THEORY
Act 1
The girls coming across the abandoned buliding and deciding to stay
the night. The third girl is unsure but pressured while the antagonist is
watching them. The first girl gets taken.
Act 2
This is the part where the the third girl screams and the antagonist goes
after her, thus setting of a dangerous chain of events. However she
grabs a weapon and manages to free herself.
Act 3
The girl knocks out the antagonist and manages to get out, however
when she gets help there is no evidence of anything ever happening.

12. SYD FIELD’S THEORY
CHALLENGED
According to the theory, in the third act the victim/hero will
win by overcoming their binary opposite (in this case the
victims – final girl – binary opposite is the antagonist.
Then, there will be resolution with the hero coming out
victorious.
Although the hero seemingly overcomes the
antagonist, when she finds help they think she is crazy
because they go back to the building, and there is no
evidence of anything happening – no blood, weapons, bodies
etc. This therefore does not lead to a resolution for the girl as
she has to deal with the consequences of appearing crazy
rather than being a victim and hero.